Marieclaire Camilleri

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

The film’s storyline is one many returned Maltese migrants will no doubt associate with: it’s about a young free-spirited artist, Karl, who returns to his home island Malta after a long time away. It covers his personal journey discovering his roots. Reliving old habits with friends and memories from his childhood, this journey leads him to re-visit his past with his ex-girlfriend, and then with a new friend, Anna, through whom he visits his old home in Gozo, now a neglected house full of memories. Anna is his springboard for self reflection and becomes his reason for trying to start life again in Malta; a place he’s familiar with but is now seeing through different eyes.

A foreigner comes to Malta, to take pictures of dilapidated buildings. He photographs ruins that look like they could be on Bocklin's "Isle of the Dead." Soon he finds, however, that crumbling edifices are not the only similarity between the two Isles.